As the blog title would indicate, I did not have an Italian wedding rather I married a Desi. No ordinary desi, one who not only cooks Desi food but who also cooks delicious Italian food.In my humble opinion food fit for an Italian wedding. Last night we were joined for dinner by my brother-in-law Gopi, also the latest inductee into the Ross Business School Hall of Fame. (He'll be starting his MBA in the fall.) Our guest of honor was their uncle Chellappa Chithappa who is affectionely referred to as CC.

The Italian wedding dinner was envisioned in order to accompany the vintage selected for the night, 'Three Buck Chuck'. If you haven't tried it, go out and buy a bottle, or 10. It'll still be cheaper than most out there, and better. Appropriately accompanied by Italian food, since in this case South or North Indian food was vetoed. Imagine my luck, my husband and brother in law decide to team up together to cook CC and I dinner. It was the Sundaram Culinary Institute in full force. The menu follows but first the toast, "To MY good fortune of having these two around!".

1. Layer a stack in the following order: eggplant, red onion, mozzarella, parmesan, eggplant.2. Insert a toothpick through the centre to anchor the stack together.3. Dip the stack on both sides into the flour mixture to coat.4. Fry on both sides in garlic butter.

Serve over salad. You can omit the garlic, but to be honest when we compared the garlic butter stacks to olive oil stacks, the garlic butter tasted so much better. You could also layer fresh basil leaves in this as well.

1. Toss the vegetables with oil, salt, ground black pepper, chili flakes, and italian herbs.2. Broil until the vegetables are cooked and release a flavorful aroma (approximately 8-10 minutes). Alternatively you can bake them at 450 for about 20 minutes.3. Boil the spaghetti according to package directions until al dente.4. Mix the vegetables along with the pasta.

Serve topped with capers and Parmesan cheese.

Garlic Buns6 buns, 1/4 cup butter, 1 tbsp chopped garlic

1. Mash the garlic into butter. The butter should be at room temperature (If not it will not adhere properly to the buns and create the nice garlicky crust on the bread).2. Spread the buns with the garlic butter.3. Bake at 350 degrees until the edges are browned slightly.

Verdict: CC and I were blown away and decided the food was better than any restaurant we had been to. It deserved to be served with a 100 dollar vintage!

40 comments:

Sundaram Culinary Institute!!! HAHAHAHAALoved the menu planned by Shankar, may be I'll copy the same at home soon- recently made an italian dinner for a couple who are close friends, Three Bean Soup, Homemade Olive bread, Mushroom & Tomato Bruchetta, Fusilli in Arabiatta sauce and they got over the Gelato. Your menu next time!!Hugs to both of you, you are lucky to have a husband who can cook an entire meal (that too Italian), especially when you are a good cook too :)

Hey Kanchana.....am jus' easing my tech-resistant mom into the big-bad world of blogging!!....'n' the best way to capture her interest is South-Indian cuisine and a cuter-than-hell South-Indian couple!!....She's gotten all teary-eyed seeing your wedding pics and am passing on her best wishes to you 'n' your divine hubster!!

p.s.Love the Italian spread...do I even need to tell you how fantastic it all looks!!

How beautiful does that look! Lovely photography, K! Very appropriate toast for the lovely dinner and the chefs! Eggplant stack is going on my must-try list. IT looks delicious and the recipe sounds divine and easily do-able! Thanks for sharing! :)

wow!!! i seriously thought its a pic from restarent... shankar is fab cook. my compliments to the chef:)happy I-day kanch. i have got something special for u @my place. so come n pick it when u get time:)